Is Windows 10 Cortana slowing your computer performance?

Another day, another Windows 10 bug stifling your life. Users have spotted a bug causing Cortana to take up a good chunk of your CPU and it’s chewing up battery life and choking performance. Here’s what you can do to fix it.

Windows has released a new update, KB4512941 (OS Build 18362.329), in order to fix some errors with starting Windows Sandbox as well as a variety of other bugs.

What the update also does is increase Cortana’s CPU usage to around 40 per cent, as reported by Windows Latest.

Some Reddit users have alleged Cortana’s suddenly taking up to 90 per cent of their device’s CPU while others reported more modest, but still critical, numbers of around 40 per cent.

KB4512941’s landing page states it’s “not currently aware of any issues with this update” so an official fix doesn’t seem immediately likely.

Other users, thankfully, have offered a workaround to stop Cortana from chewing up your PC power.

The first option is pretty simple; just uninstall it. To do so, open up Settings (WIN + I), select Update & Security, hit View update history, hit Uninstall updates and select KB4512941 to rid of it.